Health & wellbeing

HYP Southwark is here to help you be healthy, well and happy in all areas of your life. When you visit our services you can ask us for help and support with anything that is troubling you and even if we can’t help, we’ll try put you in touch with someone who can.

Whether you’re feeling low, anxious or stressed, your wellbeing can have a huge impact on your health and the decisions you make. It’s good to remember that most of us will feel like this at one time or another so you’re not alone.

Take the NHS wellbeing self-assessment tool to find out how happy you are.

Improve your health and wellbeing

Stress

Stress can be caused by a number of factors, such as school, relationships or work and can often make it hard to focus or think clearly about anything else. This can then affect your sleep, concentration and appetite.

However, stress can be controlled. Learning to spot the early signs of stress such as nausea, a headache or fidgeting can help you to tackle the issue before it becomes overwhelming.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. Everyone has moments where you feel low about yourself, such as falling out with friends or not doing well at school but learning how to deal with these situations can improve your resilience and ability to cope in the future. Be kind to yourself, be honest and learn from it.

Your body

Your physical health can have a big influence on your mental health. If you feel good physically this can often help you feel good mentally. The below four factors tend to be the issues we all slip up on most often:

Alcohol: Whilst alcohol may cheer you up temporarily, alcohol is a depressant and may leave you feeling worse after.

Food: It may feel good to comfort eat when you’re feeling down but your body needs nutrients to feel better. Eating a healthy balanced diet can have a really positive affect on how you feel. Find out more about finding your perfect weight on the Brook website.

Exercise: Exercise is well known to cause your body to release endorphins and boost your mood. A 30 minute walk whilst listening to music also counts!

Sleep: Getting a good night sleep can have a massive impact on your mood. You should be getting 7 or 8 hours sleep a night – if you’re not, this could explain why you’re not feeling happy.

Talk to someone

It may feel daunting but talking about what is making you unhappy can really help. Talking to someone you trust can help to make the problem feel more manageable.